Clinics A Quick Fix For Sick

Sick? In a hurry?

Well, quick alternatives to the doctor's office are coming to eight Baltimore-area Target stores. A Minnesota company is setting up clinics that can treat ailments such as strep throat, pink eye, bronchitis, flu and seasonal allergies — fast.

MinuteClinic's slogan is, "You're sick. We're quick."

An office visit and test for strep throat costs $48 for patients paying out of pocket. Visits for ear aches, bronchitis and pink eye cost $44. Clinics will offer flu shots Oct. 1.

Linda Hall Whitman, the chief executive officer of the Minneapolis-based company, said the market is ripe for convenient and fast medical service for common ailments. The company expects to make more than $4 million in revenue this year.

"The simple illnesses just do not require the capital intensive kinds of settings that more serious diseases do, and people are out of time," Whitman said.

Appointments are not necessary. You can shop during the short wait. Clinics have beepers on hand to enable browsing. Pharmacies at Target stores facilitate one-stop care.

"If there is a wait, it's typically very, very short," Hall said.

Visits are designed to take no more than 15 minutes.

The clinics also are designed to treat sinus infections, poison ivy, cold sores, female bladder infections, ringworm and deer tick bites.

They will offer four vaccines, including tetanus/diptheria, flu and pneumonia and hepatitis B.

Michael Preston, executive director of MedChi, the state medical association, said the easy access to medical care is positive, so long as people tell their primary physicians.

"We think that as patients avail themselves of this, they'll need to have a heightened awareness of the need to make sure that their physicians are informed about what it is that the patients learn in these processes," he said.

While emphasizing convenience, Whitman said MinuteClinics weren't designed to be substitutes for primary care providers. Patients with more complicated illnesses are referred to their primary care provider.

"We're really a safety net when that primary care provider is not available to see a patient," Whitman said. "And we really do feel strongly that continuity of care is important and that's why we fax the diagnostic record to the primary care providers."

Visits will be covered by many of the area's top insurance providers, the company said.

Touted as a "mini medical office," Whitman said lower prices for visits are possible because of the low overhead. Clinics typically have a refrigerator, computer and printer.

The first Maryland store in Towson opens Tuesday. A clinic in Cockeysville is scheduled to open later this week. Clinics in Aberdeen, Bel Air, Ellicott City, Glen Bernie and Laurel are expected to open later this month and in September.

The company is planning to expand closer to the Washington, D.C. area, Hall said.

"We're already in conversations with other retailers regarding potential locations for additional clinics," she said.

Maryland is the second state where the company has opened stores. The first MinuteClinic opened in 2000 in Minnesota. The idea occurred to a father who was spending his second straight Saturday in an urgent care waiting area with a child who had a sore throat, Whitman said.

There's gotta be a better way, he thought.

MinuteClinics have had 152,000 visits since they opened.

Each clinic has at least two full-time nursing practitioners, as well as an additional part-time employee. A physician is on call during all hours of operation. Twenty-eight nurse practitioners have been hired to work in Maryland so far, Whitman said.

The company also has been in touch with nursing schools in the state to give students chance to get clinical experience.

Kathleen Sabatier, director of the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing, said nurse practitioners in training could begin participating at the clinics as part of their course of study this fall.

"This is a good thing," she said. "I think that it will provide good care for families and parents who have children who have things that are easy to diagnose and treat, and they'll get that kind of quality care in a convenient way."

The clinics will be open 68 hours a week, Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday 10-5, Sunday 10-4.